Native: 2a Novel

Although it draws impressively from the rugged power of its contemporary Wyoming setting, short story writer Henderson's first novel, a gay coming-out and coming-of-age tale, is a bit too studied to succeed completely. At the center of the book stands narrator Blue Parker, a promising 23-year-old ranch foreman who finds himself torn by the conflicting demands of professional duty, his attraction for a subordinate and his respect for a mysterious Native American. Gilbert is a berdache , a relic of an Indian tradition of cross-dressing men who possess magical powers; he functions in the novel primarily as a catalyst and symbol rather than as a fully drawn character. Gilbert's presence alerts Blue to his true feelings toward Sam, the third person in the triangle, and the Indian's return in the novel's final movement draws together all the plot threads in an uneasy climax. Henderson ambitiously blends present, flashback and fantasy in his narrative; he displays a sure feeling for the stark, often dangerous beauty of the American West, and astutely depicts the tensions in a masculine society that fears men who love each other. But as Blue's life unravels in the book's final third, the narrative drive gets lost in a welter of fantasies and memories. ( Mar. )